


i want to hold your hand

by hockeydyke



Series: Samwell Women's Hockey [6]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, High School, Montreal, Samwell Women's Hockey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-25 22:03:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13222143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hockeydyke/pseuds/hockeydyke
Summary: While Jack is spending his teenage years tearing it up in juniors, Celeste is playing hockey for her high school team, and finding out some very interesting things about herself.





	i want to hold your hand

**Author's Note:**

> As is the case with all of these oneshots, this won't make sense without first reading my full-length Samwell Women's Hockey fic, Put That Weight on Me, which is the first story in this series. Check it out!

What’s kind of funny about this whole thing, Celeste thinks frequently during the year she's sixteen, is that she and Justine really don’t have anything in common.

 

Like, they both go to the same all-girl’s high school, and they both play on the same hockey team, and they’re both clearly into girls, but other than that, they can barely hold a conversation about anything other than hockey that they're mutually interested in. It’s not really an issue, though, because when they’re together they’re not usually looking to make small talk.

 

Justine has a great sense of humor. She’s always the center of attention in the locker room, cracking jokes and rattling off puns and just generally causing a ruckus. Celeste, the captain of their team by the time she’s sixteen, is constantly shushing her to get the girls to pay attention to their coaches. And it’s not that Celeste doesn’t have a sense of humor because she recognizes that yes, Justine can be funny sometimes, but Celeste is already on the roster for the national U18 team and she’s on track to make it to the Canadian women’s national team soon enough, so she really doesn’t have time for messing around. She used to have Jack for goofing around and just being a teenager with, but now Jack's in juniors and barely talking to her, so she figures it's time for her to grow up a little.

 

Justine is also gay, and very open about it. Celeste worries for her when she first comes out to the girls, but barring a few members of the team who Celeste has to give very firm talkings-to, most everyone is chill about it. Justine even invites Celeste and some of the others to come with her to the pride parade in Montreal that year. Celeste goes because she’s the captain and it’s a good show of support for her teammate.

 

And fine, maybe she goes because she’s just a little bit fascinated by Justine, and how easygoing she is, and how she brushes off criticism like it’s nothing and always seems to be comfortable in her skin. 

 

At the parade Celeste finds herself ignoring the floats and the people marching, as fascinating as they are, in favor of watching Justine. She’s sitting on the sidewalk next to the Celeste, legs crossed in front of her, and watching the proceedings with a small, bemused smile. It’s a hot day and Celeste can feel beads of sweat dripping down her back and along her temples, but Justine looks perfectly cool and comfortable. 

 

It might be the bralette she’s wearing. It’s probably a lot cooler than Celeste’s thick cotton t-shirt. Celeste forces herself to tear her eyes away from Justine’s bare midriff, and the soft slope of her breasts in the bralette-- 

 

And finds Justine watching her stare, head tilted in curiosity.

 

“Yes?” she says, to a question Celeste didn’t ask.

 

Well. Celeste didn’t ask a question, sure, but she sure as hell has one. She answers it by leaning forward, closing the two feet of space between them with her lips as she kisses Justine.

 

She’s never kissed anybody before. She’s not sure if she’s supposed to use her tongue or what, so she just tilts her head to keep their noses from knocking and closes her eyes. Justine’s lips part a tiny bit and Celeste takes this as an okay, a yes, keep going, so she does for a second before Justine pulls away.

 

Celeste jerks backward. She can feel herself blushing hard.

 

“Jesus, Celeste,” says Justine. “Is this you coming out to me? Because you have excellent timing, doing it at Pride.”

 

“I wasn’t sure,” Celeste says. She still isn’t sure what exactly is going on with her. She glances around to make sure that no one is watching, but really, there’s not much about two teenage girls kissing in the middle of a Pride celebration that attracts much attention, thank god. “Can I kiss you again?”

 

“I wouldn’t be opposed,” Justine says, and they meet in the middle for another kiss. A much longer one, this time, which lasts until Celeste is somehow in Justine’s lap and holding onto the hair tie that had previously been holding Justine’s chin-length dark hair back in a stubby ponytail. 

 

After a while Justine pulls away and Celeste finds herself leaning after her, eager for just another second of contact. Justine laughs. “Hey, relax. We can kiss more later. I want to get ice cream now.”

 

“Oh. Okay,” Celeste says. Are they dating now? She’s not sure how any of this works. She maybe wants Justine to be her girlfriend, but also, she’s not really sure if she wants to date a teammate. And there’s also the matter of explaining this to her dad, or her national team teammates, or-- dear lord, there’s a lot of stuff that comes along with kissing. She blinks a few times to clear her racing thoughts, stands, and helps Justine to her feet. “I think there’s one down the block.”

 

“Yeah, I think you’re right. Let’s go.” Justine takes her hand and pulls her in that direction, and-- oh. That’s new. Hand holding. It sends a bit of a nervous shock up Celeste’s arm, and she’s not sure if she feels all warm outside because of the sun beating down on them, or because she likes the feeling of touching Justine, or maybe a combination of both. It takes a full minute for her heart to stop beating ridiculously fast in her chest and threatening to fly up, up, up out her throat and into the world.

 

Then, of course, when her pulse finally relaxes to a relatively normal pace, Justine has to go and start gently rubbing her thumb against Celeste’s, which triggers a whole new level of her body going wild that she can barely comprehend. 

 

“Wow,” she says, quietly, to herself.

 

Justine glances back at her. Celeste is surprised she heard, considering the noise from the crowds and the music. “Are you good?” she asks. 

 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” says Celeste. Then: “I like holding hands.” Might as well be honest.

 

“Okay, cool.” Justine flashes her a grin. Her teeth are very straight and white, which Celeste thinks maybe is a strange thing to notice, but well. She can’t stop thinking about Justine’s mouth. “I’ll have to remember that.”

 

She gives Celeste hand a squeeze, and Celeste thinks she can pretty confidently answer her own internal question from earlier: yes, she likes girls. A big, resounding  _ yes _ .

 

\\_._/

 

They’re never quite  _ girlfriends,  _ but they aren’t not girlfriends either. 

 

They feel like girlfriends when Charles catches them kissing one night when Justine is over for a sleepover and they’re pretending to watch  _ Titanic,  _ and Charles politely asks Justine to go home and sits down to have a very long talk with Celeste.

 

They also feel like girlfriends when Charles invites Justine over for dinner and makes them all breakfast for dinner and Justine keeps up an easy banter with him while he flips pancakes.

 

But other than that, and occasionally hanging out and kissing and eventually doing more than that, they don’t talk much. They have school, and hockey, and they each have their own separate friend groups within the team. Plus, they have different priorities. Justine founds their school GSA and wants to go into politics when she graduates. Celeste is less about rainbow-flags-everywhere pride and more into devoting every part of herself to hockey. 

 

When Celeste heads off to the Olympics, they’re officially done being-- whatever they are. By the time she returns to school, Justine has graduated and headed off to university.

 

\\_._/

 

When Celeste finishes telling Jordan all of this, Jordan takes Celeste’s laptop off her lap and pulls it onto her own. Celeste scoots closer to her on the couch to see what she’s doing and finds that she’s clicking away from Celeste’s email, with the invitation to her high school five year reunion, and opening up Facebook to search Justine’s name. 

 

Celeste rests her head on Jordan’s shoulder while she searches. She has to spell out Justine’s last name for Jordan several times before she types it right. 

 

When they scroll through a few profiles and find Celeste’s Justine, Jordan gives a low whistle. “Damn. She’s hot.”

 

“Yes,” Celeste says, just to get a rise out of Jordan. Jordan gives her a little shove, then has to quickly grab for the laptop before it falls out of her lap.

 

“I want to come,” Jordan says, once it’s secure again.

 

“To come where?”

 

“Your high school reunion.”

 

“Oh, so I can show you off to my ex?” Celeste asks, mouth tilting up in a small smile.

 

“Yes. I can be an excellent trophy wi-- girlfriend,” Jordan says, blushing. She then continues talking to move quickly past the blunder. “I clean up nice.”

 

“You do,” says Celeste. “Okay. You can come, but you have to promise not to tell Justine any embarrassing stories about me. I’m worried that you guys are going to get along too well.”

 

“Only a few embarrassing stories,” Jordan promises, and, well. That’s probably the best that Celeste is going to get, so she seals the promise with the kiss, and smiles when she feels Jordan slip their hands together.

**Author's Note:**

> Song title from I Want To Hold Your Hand by the Beatles, since I couldn't think of any other songs about hand holding.
> 
> Me, after realizing that Justine and Jordan have similar names and appearances in my head: haha... oops... that was totally on purpose!
> 
> Please take a moment to leave a comment or come visit me on tumblr where I'm also @hockeydyke!


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